The first safari 2007 including gorillas in the mist

I have just got back from Rwanda where we had an incredible time with the Mountain Gorillas, huge powerful beast that could pop a human scull with one hand, but that are gentle and tolerant of us sitting amongst them.

In Kenya I visited Nakuru National Park and Samburu Reserve for the first time. Nakuru is relatively small and surrounds one of the rift valley soda lakes. The town is right on the park boundary, which could spoil the atmosphere a little but we were camping on the south side away from the town and hardly knew it was there. With the lake and flamingos it has a similar feel to Ngorongoro Crater, but both Black and Whiter Rhino a common. We saw three huge Tom leopards in 24 hours, in fact this must be one of the best places around for leopard, and it was not too crowded. Rothschild’s giraffe can be seen here and the game densities to bee seen.

Samburu was a little disappointing as the local authorities have allowed too many lodges to be built. It is however a great place to see the Gravy’s Zebra, Beisa Oryx (a first for me) among others. I also saw several new life birds.

A real treat was the journey by helicopter from Samburu Reserve to Loisaba (a beautiful private ranch and hotel). This was a joy ride over the incredible open savannah, and then up and over beautiful sky island mountains rising out of the semi desert that are high enough to be covered with evergreen forest including rare cycads. At Loisaba we had a chance to get completely immature on four wheeler ATV’s, ramping off termiteria, throwing them sideways and generally mucking about.

Loisaba is a picturesque little lodge with stunning vies over the Uaso Nyiro Valley. The group I was with enjoyed there cocktails as did I, to the extent that I ended up pulling the door of the bar late one night when the barman had snuck of to bed and locked it. Needless to say I am now de-toxing before the next safari, which will be more subdued I hope.

We all then flew to Kigali (capital of Rwanda) via Nairobi to clear customs and immigration. The Nairobi Kigali leg was just over an hour in a DC9 charter with plenty of space to stretch out.

From Kigali it was a couple of hours drive through the land of a thousand hills to the rather basic lodge. The next two days where all about Gorilla tracking in the morning and much needed rest in the afternoons. A few of us elected to go to one of the furthest Gorilla troops on the last day and hiked for about six hours all in all including an incredible 45 min with the gorilla family for company. On both days the Gorillas decided when we had, had enough of their company, both experiences ending with charges and contact. The local guides where brave enough, and confident enough, to step in front of the beasts and take the full impact of the encounter. I have amazing footage on Video of all of this including one of the charges. God knows when I will get to edit it all.

I loved the Gorilla experience and was very impressed with Rwanda. I would also recommend Loisaba and the Helicopter safari.